LibGuides: English: Junior Seminar: Zotero

About Zotero

Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is an application that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, connects with your web browser to download sources, and best of all it's free.

Zotero will allow you to:

Collect books, articles, videos, etc, and have them all in one location
Easily create citations from databases and PittCat
Tag your citations for greater searchability
Attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations
Enter citations and bibliographies, in many formats (MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.)
Create in-text citations
Share your research and references with a group

Zotero How To Video

Zotero Quick Start Guide

University of New Mexico

Zotero Pro Tips Video

Backing up your Zotero Library

Syncing is not a substitute for backing up!

What if you accidentally delete a bunch of references? You'll lose them for good the next time your library syncs. Here's how to make a backup of your Zotero library:

In Zotero, go to the File menu > Export Library
In the Format drop-down box, select Zotero RDF
If you're using notes and/or files, check the boxes for "Export Notes" and "Export Files"
Click OK
Save the file to a location like your Desktop
Then make sure to copy that file to a secondary location like AFS, Google Drive, an external hard drive, etc. Please contact CUS if you need help figuring out a good backup strategy that works for you.